At George Grenville, we believe that teaching and learning in Science should encourage our pupils to be excited and curious about natural phenomena, in order to help them understand the world in which we live.
We aim to provide children with opportunities to ask questions, make observations and investigate their ideas, to improve their understanding. By providing a range of practical experiences, we develop pupils’ investigative skills and allow children to take risks and learn from their mistakes; enabling them to become more confident, independent learners.
We carefully plan our curriculum to ensure that pupils’ knowledge and scientific skills progress throughout the key stages, at the same time as building on the knowledge and skills that the children have previously learnt and remembered. By the time our pupils leave George Grenville, we want to ensure that they are confident in planning and carrying out investigations, to ensure they are ready to progress into KS3 at our local feeder schools, where one of these is a specialist Science school.
Implementation
Science at George Grenville is mostly taught discretely, however our teachers do try and link this into their themes where possible. We follow the National Curriculum, which repeats and builds on previous knowledge, allowing children to know more and therefore remember more as they progress through the school. Knowledge organisers are used to support teachers in ensuring the relevant knowledge and vocabulary is taught within each unit.
In addition to following the National Curriculum, we also deliver science days, which are separate from the constraints of the National Curriculum, that allow the children to investigate and learn about scientific areas, therefore experiencing wider aspects of science and the world they live in. These include:
Start the new year with a bang – an investigative focus where the children plan and carry out experiments on a topic outside of the National Curriculum
Year 2 Royal Latin Science day – Teachers and students from The Royal Latin (Specialist Science feeder school) work with the Year 2 children to deliver a variety of workshops
Year 5 Royal Latin Science workshops – Year 5 children walk to The Royal Latin and spend half a day in a Science lab, taking part in a workshop, in order to get them ready for Science in KS3
Click on the link to watch a video showing the highlights of our 2022 "Start the New Year with a BANG!"
The children enjoyed 3 days of science, including spending the third day looking at climate change across the school.
Impact
The impact of our Science curriculum is measured through the monitoring cycle in school. This includes:
Learning walks
Book monitoring
Discussions with pupils
Discussions with class teachers
Monitoring is used to measure whether:
There is a variety of evidence that covers the curriculum coverage
There is clear progression of children’s work across the year groups
Children are confident about Science and that they understand how they know when they have learnt something new
Children are able to confidently and independently able use vocabulary
Children are able to independently plan and carry out investigations, using equipment safely
